Those Who Continue
by jiskistasta
Summary: When a dead girl shows up in the District, and someone finds her, shouldn’t she stay dead? And human? Rated T for possible ... well, you know. Christopher/OC Please, R/R, I'll give you cat foooood
1. Looks Can Be Decieving

What in hell was a dead human girl _doing_ out here?! She looked fairly clean, like she came from a good area, so why was she here? And why was she … dead?

I couldn't just leave her there. Who knows what would happen? Without a second thought, I picked the girl up and went inside.

I tried to figure out how she died as a start. There was a long cut down her back, which was bleeding pretty badly; it looked like maybe it had caused her death. Then a strange thing happened.

It healed. All of a sudden. The skin and whatever had been under it had completely regrown, and her hands were moving. She turned over a little and sat up, her eyes wide with fear. She tried to speak, but all that came out was random little words that made no sense. It didn't appear that she knew any human language, very well at least. Well enough to communicate.

Another strange thing happened at that moment. I could _feel_ the fear that this girl was very obviously feeling herself. I could hear the words she was trying to form, though her mouth wasn't moving, at least not in a way that would form words in any language I knew. "Don't … don't hurt … scared … help me …" she was just repeating over and over in my head.

I moved toward her, slowly. I didn't want to scare her anymore than she already was. "I'm not going to hurt you," I said. She put her head to one side, and a new message was in my mind now. It was very simple: _?_

Quickly it was replaced with a longer one. "Other people … they hurt me … us … you're … not like?" She was blinking quite a bit, and I noticed something off: the color of her eyes. Rather than a normal color, with normal-colored pupils, her eyes were black with bright red pupils. What _was_ this girl?

I shook my head. She was in shock, I could ask her questions later. "No, I'm not going to hurt you. I most certainly don't plan on it. What is your name?" I said. She looked away.

"I … no name … long ago … don't remember now," she replied, still using this strange form of mental communication she had. I smiled.

"Well, I'll have to think of a name for you, is that okay?" I asked. She nodded. "Also … how are you communicating with me? What is going on with this mental telepathy of yours?"

She looked down. "My kind … mind talk … only other species … very rare … first encounter with new," she told me. So, her kind could communicate with their minds naturally? And only with someone of a different species if it was the first of its kind they'd encountered.

"What are you?" I asked her. "The eyes, the mental communication, you're definitely not human. So?"

She looked down, and bit her lip. "We … are called … I don't know … translation … 'those who continue' … or similar. Created … to save … dying species. We … become any species … and save it. If you … understand the meaning," she explained, and it seemed she was getting the hang of mental communication with someone who wasn't 'one who continued,' as she'd called her kind. "The eyes … allow us to … see what the others … are made of. We become that … and literally _are_ that … physically speaking. Our minds … memories stay … same … though sometimes … different formatting." She smiled. "That … was not … good explanation, huh?"

I touched her hand. "It was an alright explanation. I can't expect something like that to have an easy explanation, can I?" She shook her head. "Oh, you still need a name don't you?" She nodded. "What do you think of the name Ria? I just thought of it, and it seems to fit you."

She frowned. "Ree-ya?" she tried to pronounce it for real, instead of using her mental communication. It was the first time I'd heard her say anything. I was oddly happy.

"That's right … that's how you say it," I told her, and she beamed at me.

"How … say … in … your la … langua … language?" she asked like a normal person would, though struggling a little with the word.

"You wouldn't be able to," I told her, "you're human." She nodded. "Oh, and … you're gonna need some clothes," I said, though mostly to myself. Again, she nodded, and remembered something.

"Where, sleep?" she asked. Of course. She must be tired. I'd give up my bed for her.

I pointed to it. "Here," I said, "you can sleep here." She stood up, walked over to the mattress that was laying on the floor, laid down, and was unconscious within a minute.


	2. Necessities

What was I going to do about this? Four hours ago, I had brought a dead human girl into my home. Now she was perfectly alive, and clearly was something that wasn't human. Has the entire universe gone crazy?

Okay. Calm now. I have to figure out a way to explain this so Oliver will understand. He's a child; he'll most certainly be confused by Ria's presence. He told me he'd be at his friend Bill's house all day, and it's what, five o'clock? He'll be there till around eight …

For one thing, I have to make sure Ria doesn't find out about the secret. She can't know. For all I know, she might be a trap set by MNU.

No, actually that's probably not true. The connection between our minds stayed open while she slept, and I could see what she was dreaming. She was actually afraid of the company. Had her kind, 'those who continue,' been created by them?

No, wait, definitely not. Genetic engineering, which she had mentioned when talking about her kind, was within humans' scientific range, but creating genetically engineered shape-shifters (which was basically what Ria was, if she could become another species)? That was definitely out of the question when it came to humans.

Then she woke. The random images from her dreams ended, replaced with stuff that made sense: food, a toilet, water, in that order. "You stay here," I told her, and went outside to see if I could find her something to eat.

She followed me. "Ria, I told you to stay inside!" I snapped at her. She looked away, and then looked like she would cry.

"But … I don't like alone," she said quietly, sniffling.

"I'm sorry," I said. "But I did tell you to stay inside. It's dangerous for you out here." She seemed to understand, and went back inside. I found her something to eat and drink, and made the corner of the property used for nature's call a little more private so that the human girl could use it. In the meantime, I wanted to learn more about what she was.

I went back inside, and gave her the food. "I didn't know what you wanted," I explained, "so I just got you some of what I saw some other humans eating. I hope you like it." But apparently she didn't have to like it. In her world, preference had no place. She grabbed the food and started eating quicker than I'd ever seen anyone eat.

I chuckled. "Looks like _someone_ was hungry," I said, smiling. She looked up at me and stuck out her tongue. "Alright," I said, "we have no secrets here, _except_ that food in your mouth. No one wants to see that." She laughed.

In a few minutes she was done eating. She seemed to consider something for a moment, and then asked me, "You alone always here?"

I shook my head. "No, I don't live alone. I have a son, he's just at a friend's house today," I told her. She looked down for a minute, opened her mouth, then quickly closed it again.

"You my friend?" she asked me, looking up at me hopefully.

"Yes, I suppose I am," I said, and she smiled and stood up. Very delicately, she put her arms around me. It was kind of hard for her, given that she was pretty small even for a human.

"You keep me safe here?" she asked, and I nodded. She grinned, and closed her eyes.


End file.
